Need to look beyond street power : Noting the politics at play
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 18, 2023 -

No one seems to know what is happening.

What is the exact figure of the people killed in the ethnic clash so far ?

How many houses have been razed to the ground ?

What is the exact number of displaced people and how many are taking shelter in the different shelter homes ?

How many have moved to Mizoram and to other cities of the country ?

Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi refusing to even acknowledge the clash that has taken a heavy toll ?

Is NH-2 really open and have the highwaymen stopped checking the ID cards of passengers travelling along this route at Kangpokpi and two or three other places ?

So many unanswered questions, but this has not stopped the warring groups from going on the offensive against each other.

Each master on their own turf and it is in yet another display of this mastery over one’s own turf that a Maring lady was done to death at Keibi Heikakmapal under Lamlai police station in Imphal East on July 15.

Mistaken identity is the two word explanation or excuse that one can expect from those responsible for the ghastly murder of the innocent lady, but this should leave no one in doubt that pure, undiluted hate has blinded everyone and the growing number of missing persons, all suspected to have been killed after they strayed into the territory of the other side indicate that everyone has come under the spell of raw street power.

Juxtapose the understanding of street power to the highly calculative move such as raising the demand for a separate administration and Manipur today finds itself in a situation where political intrigues of the highest order sleep side by side with the naked display of raw and rustic street power.

So even as people on either side continue demonstrating their street power, literally gunning each other, came the face of the high political intrigues in taking the clash in Manipur to the European Parliament some days back.

Piggy riding on the back of religion to cook up a narrative, so fantastic, and in the process gain the sympathy of the Western world.

One cannot help but doff one’s hat to the ingenuity of spinning out the Church politics to let the remains of the demolished Churches feature in the European Parliament, but here could be a case of chewing off more than one can chew in the ultimate analysis.

Votaries of the Church politics have no doubt succeeded in taking the burning embers of the remains of the places of worship to the European Parliament but would it help them take a step or two closer to their avowed aspiration of a Zalengam ?

Does taking the matter to the European Parliament fall in line with the call for the Prime Minister to break his silence and act on the situation ?

Does it fall in line with the red carpet welcome rolled out for Union Home Minister complete with the tri-colour when Amit Shah visited Kangpokpi and Churachandpur some time back ?

Lay off was how Delhi responded. The answer is there for all to see but here is a case of one side looking beyond the display of street power and taking things to the international level to present its case.

Has Manipur taken note of it is the question that follows.

The Sangai Express has already negated the Church politics being pursued but the question of who is keeping a tab on the number of religious sites of the Meiteis being demolished is yet to be answered.

No one has also felt the need to revisit May 3 and the days earlier to illustrate who first started demolishing places of worship.

This is where the failure to grow out of the politics of street muscle is evident but surely it cannot go on like this forever.

Playing high politics is no child’s play and while the Church politics may have featured in Europe, it does not jell with the hands being stretched out for New Delhi to grasp.

But then when foreign hands are increasingly being smelt in the current violence, looking to Europe by doctoring a script along religious divide should not come as too big a surprise to the discerning folks.